| dc.description.abstract | Since ancient times, certain philosophers, scientists, and musicians have sought to unravel the mysterious relationship between music and the cosmos. This research paper presents a selected chronological survey of the relationship between music and celestial, interstellar, and otherworldly themes. It examines the many ways that composers depict these themes through their choices of instrumentation, harmonic structure, and symbolism. The Ancient Greeks explored a theory called musica mundana, which held that the mathematical relationship between celestial bodies such as the sun, moon, and stars could create harmony. During the Middle Ages, Boethius and Hildegard von Bingen also examined this theory and further expanded ideas about music, science, and the cosmos.
Later, the experimental spirit of the Twentieth Century fostered an exponential growth in composers depicting celestial themes through music in new and unique ways. The Planets, a multi-movement programmatic work written between 1914-1917 by Gustav Holst, serves as a quintessential example of a musical work in the concert repertoire that draws direct inspiration from space. The popularity of science fiction films throughout the Twentieth Century also presented exciting opportunities for composers to create scores to accompany stories of strange encounters with extraterrestrial life and space exploration. The musical language of three films are examined in detail: The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951); 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968); and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). The film score analysis demonstrates that music plays a crucial role in the storytelling of these films through use of unique instrumentation, chromatic and dissonant harmonic tension, and as metaphor. | en_US |
